Pass It On-Love One Another

Title: Pass It On-Love One Another

Place: BLCC

Date: 6/1/14

Text: Genesis 37:1-11

CT: May all who come behind us find us faithful in love.

According to a new study, science has apparently uncovered a shocking discovery: your cat doesn't love you (at least as much as your dog). Here's a summary of the study from Discover Magazine: "We're pretty sure this post is going to be hated by all the feline fanciers out there, but this study is just too good not to share. Here, researchers applied a test developed for use with children to investigate the relationships between cats and their humans. The SST can determine whether children, and apparently animals, view their caregivers as a source of safety in a threatening environment. It turns out that using this metric, dogs are 'securely attached' to their owners, but cats are 'not necessarily dependent on others to provide a sense of security and safety.'" So could it be that cats are aloof, trying to act like Christians who think they don't need community? Or are cats just more secure in who they are so they're less clingy than dogs? Which one do you feel more like?

This week we are dealing with the love we are to have for one another. Our job as Christian adults and leaders is to pass the baton of our faith to those who come behind us. If the baton is dropped the consequences can be eternal.

In God’s word there aren’t always good examples of how we should live. Often times God’s word shows us the consequences of living a way that is counter to God’s vision for us. All you have to do is look at some of the OT families to find some really dysfunctional folks.

I hope your childhood was or is a happy time where you felt safe, your mom and dad loved and cared for you, and your siblings were your best friends. If so, the story of Jacob and his sons may not apply to you.

But if not, you need to know you are not alone. The most famous family tree in the Bible suffered from a serious case of dysfunctionality.

Adam accused Eve.

Cain killed his little brother.

Abraham lied about Sarah.

Rebekah favored Jacob.

Jacob cheated Esau and then raised a gang hoodlums.

The book of Genesis is a relative disaster.

The story of Jacob’s family reads like a soap opera. The events leading up to the birth of Joseph show the weaknesses of the foundation of his family. With all due respect, the patriarch could have used a course on marriage and family life. Mistake number one: he married a woman he didn’t love so he could marry one he did. Mistake number two: the two wives were sisters. (Might as well toss a lit match into a fireworks stand.) The first sister bore him sons. The second sister bore him none. So to expand his clan, he slept with an assortment of handmaidens and concubines until he had a covey of kids. Rachel, his favorite wife, finally gave birth to Joseph, who became his favorite son. She later died giving birth to a second son, Benjamin, leaving Jacob with a mixed up household and a broken heart. This is the situation we find Jacob and his family as we come to our text today.

B. Genesis 37.1-11

1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”